CHEAT SHEET

BIG PROBLEM

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After it was discovered that a recent Justice Department Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) news briefing newsletter included a link to white nationalist website VDare, BuzzFeed News found that it was not an isolated incident: A number of government agency newsletters have reportedly been linking to white nationalist, conspiracy, and hyperpartisan websites over the past year. Another VDare link was found in a Labor Department news briefing newsletter from February 2017. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Homeland Security, the Labor Department, and EOIR were also found to have linked to Western Journal and The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times’ network of news websites were found to have promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, while the Western Journal's founder reportedly questioned whether President Obama was Muslim. Some of the emails also included links to the The New American, the magazine of a far-right group that pushed Obama birther theories.

The Justice Department said they had not reviewed the most recent email with the VDare link before sending it out to immigration court employees, but the contractor who compiled the email for the DOJ—TechMIS—disputes that claim. “That’s absolutely incorrect,” TechMIS CEO Steven Mains told BuzzFeed, adding that DOJ staff would review its work “down to misspellings” prior to sending.